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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23458624">the one i want</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiveLaughLovex/pseuds/LiveLaughLovex'>LiveLaughLovex</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>first to fight [20]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Code (TV 2019)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Future, Established Relationship, F/M, Marriage Proposal, Post-Season/Series 01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 15:22:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,310</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23458624</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiveLaughLovex/pseuds/LiveLaughLovex</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Following her return from a weekend trip, Abe has something to ask Harper. In the end, though, it turns out they actually have something to ask each other.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>John "Abe" Abraham/Harper Li</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>first to fight [20]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1471817</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the one i want</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The title comes from Taylor Swift's "Paper Rings," which has been a great source of inspiration for these two. Also, I'm well aware we last left our heroes in August. This and "your smartest decision" just came to me at, like, two o'clock yesterday morning, and I've been working on them ever since. I'd say I'll go back and write some filler for those missed months, but we all know I can't promise my brain will decide to work that way.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Do you think we’ll ever manage to actually <em>keep</em> a dinner reservation?” Harper questioned conversationally, fingers intertwining with Abe’s as they slowly made their way back to the SUV awaiting them a block over.</p><p>“Sure we will,” Abe assured her easily, though he didn’t look so sure. “At some point, it’s got to become an eventuality, right?”</p><p>“You sound very confident, love,” Harper mocked teasingly, her tone light. “Though, to be fair, we are going on – what is it? Almost a year now?”</p><p>“Almost a year, yes,” he confirmed defeatedly, grinning fondly when she began laughing. “I will admit it’s not exactly a probability,” he allowed once she’d calmed slightly. “But maybe we’ll get lucky one of these days.”</p><p>“Maybe we will,” Harper agreed, leaning up slightly to press her smiling lips to his cool cheek. “Though I do enjoy eating takeout and watching <em>West Wing </em>reruns in our living room, too,” she added seriously. “I might like it more, actually.”</p><p>“Is it possible that’s just because I don’t make you wear heels in your own home?” Abe returned playfully.</p><p>“Or pants,” Harper piped in helpfully, making him chuckle quietly. “You actually prefer it if I don’t.”</p><p>“I do,” he agreed seriously, smirking suggestively down at her when she glanced up at him with an arched brow, a flirtatious smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “I really, really do.”</p><p>“Okay,” Harper breathed after a few moments, cheeks flushed as she glanced away from him to focus on the path before them, “we are in public, Captain Abraham.”</p><p>“I apologize sincerely, Captain Li,” he returned with amused earnestness, grin softening ever so slightly when she rolled her eyes at his antics. “Have I told you how glad I am that you’re home?” he asked a moment later.</p><p>“You have,” she assured him, cheeks flushing pink as she glanced up at him with an easy smile. “Many times, even though I was only gone three days.”</p><p>“What can I say?” Abe sighed, shaking his head. “I think I’ve gotten a little attached to you, Harper.”</p><p>“You’re a dork,” she informed him seriously, fingers tightening around his. “I missed you too,” she confessed after several seconds passed in comfortable silence. “Being around my family is… it’s been a long time since I felt like I just <em>belonged</em> somewhere, you know?”</p><p>He nodded in understanding, lifting their joint hands to his lips and pressing a kiss to her fingertips. “I do.”</p><p>“I feel like I <em>belong</em> with you,” she told him seriously.</p><p>“Good,” he returned just as earnestly. “I always want you to feel that way.”</p><p>“You want me to feel that way <em>forever</em>?” she quipped playfully.</p><p>“I…” He stared at her for a moment. “Yes,” he said finally. “ I want you to feel that way forever.”</p><p>“I’m glad,” she murmured, leaning more heavily against him as they continued their walk. “Abe?” she began several minutes later.</p><p>“Harper,” he returned, glancing down at her expectantly. He frowned at the seriousness of her gaze. “What is it?” he questioned, concerned. “What’s wrong?”</p><p>“Nothing,” she rushed to reassure him. “Nothing’s <em>wrong</em>, I just…” She hesitated for a moment, then met his gaze once more. “I love you,” she told him definitively. “I love you, and I know I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and everyone always says people should wait, but I don’t want to wait,” she rambled. “I don’t want to, and I don’t need to, because I know nothing’s ever going to change. I’m never going to <em>stop </em>loving you. I’m never going to look back and wish I had spent <em>less</em> time with you. I’m always going to want more of you, John; that’ll never change. I’ll never want anything less than all of you.”</p><p>“Harper,” he began slowly, still eyeing her with confusion and a little concern, but she continued before he could get anything else out.</p><p>“I want to marry you,” she blurted, meeting his gaze nervously as she waited for him to process her words. “Abe, I – I really want to marry you,” she added earnestly.</p><p>He stared at her for a moment, in a state of shock, then drew in a deep breath. “I was going to ask you that,” he informed her quietly, giddy smile blossoming into something more beautiful than she’d ever seen as he reached up to brush a strand of hair out of her face.</p><p>“You were?” she laughed tearfully.</p><p>“I was,” he confirmed gently, unable to keep from laughing himself. “I’ve had the ring for a while now…”</p><p>“I didn’t buy a ring,” she confessed quietly, wounding her arms slowly around his neck.</p><p>“That’s okay,” he promised, lips brushing against her hairline. “I did.”</p><p>“Right.” She laughed quietly, staring up at him. “Did I steal your moment?”</p><p>“No,” he reassured her. “No, you just made my moment better.”</p><p>“Oh. Good, that’s good.”</p><p>“As much as I hate to say this, can you give me… just one second?” Abe requested. “I have been carrying something around in my pocket for the past two months, and I can think of a much better home for it.”</p><p>She nodded once, carefully disentangling herself from his arms, and smiled tearfully as he fished the ring box from his pocket and fell to one knee before her.</p><p>“I don’t know if mine’s going to compare to yours,” he shrugged, “but I’ll give it a try, anyway.”</p><p>“Harper Elinor Li,” he began, blue eyes bright with tears as he stared up at her wondrously, “from the very moment I met you, I have been amazed by you. I haven’t always been the best at expressing it,” he smiled sheepishly when she laughed at the mention of those early days, “but you astonish me in the best possible way every moment of every day. You always have. You understand me, you challenge me, and you accept me as I am. You don’t try to make me better, because you don’t think there’s anything wrong with who I am, but you do make me better, Harper. You make me<em> more</em>. You’re brilliant and kind and funny and good. You make my world better each and every day just by being in it.” He inhaled deeply, then repeated her earlier words. “I love you, and I’m never going to stop loving you. I’ll always want more of you. I want all of you, for better or worse, for the rest of our lives.” He cleared his throat, then carefully opened the box in his palm to reveal the ring he’d purchased several months earlier. “So, Harper, what do you say? Will you marry me?”</p><p>“Yes,” she agreed immediately, pulling him up almost instantly and winding her arms around his neck the second he was upright. “Yes, yes, yes,” she muttered against his lips, kissing him hard in the middle of that empty sidewalk. “A thousand times yes.”</p><p>“Good,” he breathed, smiling against her skin. “The speech was good, then?” he checked.</p><p>“The speech was great,” she assured him. “But I’m not saying yes because of the speech. I’m saying yes because of the man who came up with it.” She pulled away, finally, though she didn’t step out of his embrace. “You rambled a lot less than me,” she remarked.</p><p>“I did,” he agreed, amused.</p><p>“I think that means yours was better.”</p><p>“No,” he denied, pulling her closer. “Yours was perfect.”</p><p>“Yeah?” she whispered as he lowered his face to hers.</p><p>“Yeah,” he murmured against her lips. “Perfect.”</p><p>She knew, even as she once again allowed herself to be kissed senseless in the street, that he wasn’t just speaking about the proposal when he uttered those two syllables. He was addressing everything else, too. And, as she stared up at him on that bitterly cold December’s night, she couldn’t help but silently agree with his assessment.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Also, if you're wanting a visual of Harper's engagement ring, this is the one I've chosen to base it on: https://i.pinimg.com/474x/b4/11/a3/b411a3d876f8820b8e915563946fabb7.jpg</p></blockquote></div></div>
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